In the UK: Abort first, ask questions later

Sex-selection abortions have been illegal in Great Britain since 1967. But that hasn't been stopping British abortionists from performing them.

A far-reaching undercover investigation carried out by the London Telegraph found that doctors, counselors and medical staff across the country were not only perfectly willing to perform sex-selective abortions, but they were even willing to forge paperwork to cover up their crime.

According to The Telegraph, a counselor at a British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) clinic openly admitted to the undercover operative that she would lie on her official paperwork to make sure the abortion was performed:

When the woman said she wanted an abortion because “it's a girl and I have a girl already, and I really want a boy,” the counselor told her that it was illegal to have a termination for that reason.

However, when the would-be patient asked if they had to mention the reason she had stated, the counsellor said: “I mean, if you want to tell me something different, another reason why you don't want to continue with this pregnancy … I can put that.”

“Well just say that I didn't plan it and I'm not prepared?” suggested the woman.

“Yeah, yeah, OK, that's fine, so that's what I will put down,” said the counsellor.

An abortion was then scheduled for the next week in another clinic. Fortunately (for BPAS), a manager discovered the situation before the woman left, and promptly canceled the abortion, saying “we're not legally allowed to let you have an abortion for that reason so I can't let you go ahead and have it … we'll have to cancel your appointment”.

In another undercover video, this time taken at a BPAS clinic in Manchester, it's clear that the question of sex-selection is a complete non-issue for those authorizing the abortion. In fact, the consultant is even willing to keep the matter from going through NHS (Britain's National Health Service). The reason she gives? She openly states that the abortion-seeking woman “didn't want questions asked,” admitting that she herself doesn't ask them either. “If you want a termination,” she says simply, “you want a termination.”

But things were worse by far at a different clinic in Edgbaston. According to The Telegraph, this clinic was “exposed for illicitly completing abortion forms amid concerns that doctors are not properly consulting patients before agreeing to terminations.” According to the paper, Dr. Raj Mohan “was also secretly filmed offering to arrange an abortion for a woman who said she wanted to terminate her pregnancy because the baby was a girl.” The video can be seen on The Telegraph's web site here.

The Telegraph reports Dr. Mohan casually commenting — on video — that what he was about to authorize was like “female infanticide isn't it?”

In my years at PRI, I have witnessed and reported on many horrific abuses, but rarely have I been so thoroughly aghast at what I have read. Not only was this doctor willing to authorize an abortion whose sole purpose was to kill a little girl because she was a little girl. But he was also willing to do it illegally. He was even willing to admit that that's precisely what he was doing. And, as if all that wasn't bad enough, he was even perfectly at peace that what he was doing was no different from “female infanticide.”

This, it seems to me, is the most brazen kind of immorality: when someone completely understands the heinousness of what he is doing, but does it anyway.

According to The Telegraph, sex-selection abortion is becoming a big problem in Great Britain, especially among Indian and Pakistani immigrants. We at PRI understand the ethnic and cultural reasons for this practice, but what surprised us was the willingness of British doctors and nurses to collaborate with these customs. In other words, it doesn't matter if your reasons for wanting an abortion are frivolous or even illegal. Abortion-on-demand means that everything goes.

Besides, it was supposedly to safeguard the rights of women that abortion was legalized in Britain in the first place. Yet sex-selective abortion is committed almost exclusively against female babies. Doesn't that make it the greatest form of sexism the world has ever known?